Fic recs, June 30th: PR Battle edition! · 4:41pm Jun 30th, 2013
Disclaimer: I'm maybe a tad overly-nice in these because I'm reviewing nothing but stories by my friends, so take the recommendation levels with a grain of salt maybe? But Rocks and On a Moonless Night are both really amazing in their own ways, no lies there.
Stuck by Polecat
Genre: Light Comedy
We start off with a story that’s not even on Fimfiction! It’s a fun little piece about Apple Bloom’s face getting “stuck that way”. I was rather impressed by what Pole was able to do with his prompt (“le epic pony face”) considering he nearly gave up on it. The only negatives are a few bobbles in Apple Bloom’s perspective and some poor Zecora rhyming (which I am hard to please with), but really I had a lot of fun reading this, and the ending is intriguingly open.
Recommended
Rocks by NTSTS
Genre: Tragedy
“Bleak” is the best word to describe this story. It starts with Inkie Pie finding her father’s suicide and really doesn’t get any happier after that. Everything is washed with a numbing grey, like a movie animated by Crooked Trees and Swaetshrit. It’s beautiful in its melancholy. Which isn’t to say there aren’t things to enjoy: I particularly like seeing emo Inkie (totally serious: she’s wearing a hoodie) trying to figure out her first love and I just want to hug her to death oh my god. But ultimately, this story will not make you feel good about anything, except maybe how well it was written. Unless you’re the jealous type. I’ve never been kicked more forcefully in the guy by story than when I read the prompt this was based on.
Highly Recommended
A Warm Meal by Noble Cause
Genre: Slice of Life
This was the perfect remedy to the previous: light, fluffy, cute and wholesome. Oddly, it deals with a pony triad, which I don’t think is something I’ve ever encountered before. There's not a lot of plot or anything, just a little tidbit as a pony finds out she really, really sucks at cooking, and gets a bit of support from her boyfriends, plural.
Recommended After Rocks
The Misfile by Alexstrazsa
Genre: Absurdity
This is a goofy little story about Rainbow Dash forgetting to file her taxes properly. It makes use of a lot of things like character breaking to make comedy, but for the most part, it works. I had a good time reading it, anyway. The punchline is a tad weak, or at least it’s not what I would have done, but I think it’s pretty obvious Alex was rushing to finish by that point.
Vaguely Recommended
Love by Proxy by Pascoite
Genre: Romance
At last, the one based on my prompt. :D And it has best ship! So, this story is an abject lesson in why Twilight Sparkle should never play matchmaker or do anything with relationships except kiss Rainbow Dash ever. There’s a nice twist in the middle, and Twilight has to rush around fixing everything. The writing feels a tad rough; I don’t know how much time Pascoite had to edit this or anything, but it works. The ending might be a tad more open than some prefer, but that’s deliberate, it seems. I liked this, anyway.
Recommended
On a Moonless Night by kits
Genre: Shipping Comedy
This is a story about Trixie stealing everypony’s butts.
I shit you not.
And it is brilliant. Oh sure, it’s a little unfocused at times, with intra-scene pony makeouts, colt cuddling, wedding dresses and Rainbow Dash being a super lesbian, but everything works. I would hold this up as how to write a random fic. It’s better than anything I’ve ever done and it’s everything Magic Duel should have been.
Highly Recommended
A Change in Scenery by NinesTempest
Genre: Shipping/Crossover with Animal Crossing
I have to start with the crossover part. The way it’s handled is, well... For starters, it’s a bit >video games because they throw leaves and they turn into furniture (???), but given that Rainbow Dash reacts to this, and furthermore the mayor of the town is like, “Well yeah, you didn’t know they did that?”, it’s not as bad as I make it sound. Really, if you’re going to have a game mechanic like that in a crossover, this is how you should handle it. But otherwise, the crossover is, as the title says, just scenery. Other than, say, not knowing who Nibbles is, being unfamiliar with Animal Crossing didn’t stand in the way of my understanding of the story. Also, surprisingly, there’s Animal Crossing shipping in this, which I found bizarrely compelling if maybe a little pandery. (I would not have been able to deal with this story as well as I did had that new game not just come out. It’s everywhere on the internet, so it’s fresh in my mind.) As for the actual plot, obfuscating the reason for Dash’s running away from Pinkie kept me interested throughout the story. And, well, PinkieDash. :3 I did find her actual reason to be somewhat of a letdown, both for its standard-ness as a plot point and because it was predicated on something not very show-tone, but really this story is more about Rainbow facing up to her mistake, and the emotional investment in that plotline was handled quite well. I enjoyed this enough not to rag on Nines for being late with it OH SNAP NO I DI-IN’T
Recommended for Animal Crossing and/or PinkieDash Fans
And there you have it! The June 2013 Pre-Reader Battle!
You bet your balls I was.
After reading this I definitely need to check out On a Moonless Night, because that seems frigging hilarious. After that'll get to everyone else's, including... yours. If only because it was my prompt, so I'm more than obligated to look at it. Curse you.
1178719
Yup :V
Man, I love kits's fic. It's everything I try to do with all my random stuff.
Yeah, I keep getting badgered to write more for 'A Warm Meal', including Gabe insisting he wants to write clop for it. So, I need to sit down and write, today, I think.
1178847
Hahaha! I think you could definitely explore the characters a little more. :)
THANKS MA LARSEN
If i can get done with a friend's fic today, and get these babies distracted, I hope to be able to read the rest of the prompts.